About Me

I am a non-asian who has lived and worked in Asia for two decades. I hate racism of all forms but i am particularly concerned about racism perpetuated by asians against non-asians. This blog is not meant to deny other forms of racism but simply to highlight the racism that is perpetuated by asian societies, governments and individuals.
I also hope to show the double standards that many asians employ when criticizing other societies about racist attitudes.
It is my hope that this blog will be a small step in the eradication of racism all over the world.

Sunday, July 8, 2012

Racism between migrant groups and refugees in Australia

A reader sent in an interesting article this week from
Canberra, the capital of Australia.
Now, a little research before posting this article, here at www.Asianracism.blogspot.com we
did a little research.

Canberra is a small town – about 350,000 people. It’s the centre of political power in
Australia, has the highest standard of living in Australia, it’s local
government actively supports refugee resettlement programs, and most
interesting to us, it has a similar proportion of its population holding graduate
degrees (ie masters, Phds) as the rest of
Australia has post-secondary education qualifications.

It also rates in the world top-50 most liveable cities. So in simple terms, it is a rich,
exceptionally well-educated, professionally dominated small multicultural city.

So you’d think its attitudes would be light years away from
the typical Australia “bogan” attitude as demonstrated best by the Shitney
(sorry, Sydney) anti-Muslim riots in 2005.

Apparently not. In this article, which can be found here
a Catholic priest, a Vietnamese refugee who undoubtedly faced racism himself in
Australia lambasted desperate asylum seekers who try and travel by boat to
Australia to escape ethnic cleansing, sectarian violence and other horrors for
the comparable safety of a country
with a generally tolerant majority but a big racist (but fortunately mostly not
violent) minority called Australia.

So, Don Nguyen thinks that: “''In my time, identifying
refugees was easier. I think a lot of people are playing games these days.''

Really? So, in the 1980s, a trip by boat from Vietnam with
stops in Indonesia is different from an overland trip to get out of Afghanistan
or Iraq, then flying to Malaysia then a boat trip to Australia via Indonesia
how exactly?

Exactly how is that a less dangerous trip? Why was it
easier? He then goes on to say:
''I would love to have involvement with refugees. I have experienced how the
refugee feels.''

To be fair, I think the article headline does not do justice
to his stated aims of helping refugees.
But the key quote above does show that racism and xenophobia can rear its
head in very different ways.

Here we have a Vietnamese refugee expressing what some would
consider xenophobic view about the current influx of refugees into
Australia. Like most other
countries that accept refugees (something most countries in SE Asian don’t),
who comes is a result of conflicts in the region. Still, if a Vietnamese refugee feels threatened by
western-Asian migrants, what would the rest of Australia feel?

Strangely enough, outrage at his views. The paper that published the article had
a flurry
of letters in response published, including this gem from one Gavin O'Brien
who wrote:

“I am extremely concerned at
Deacon Don Nguyen's comment ('' Cleric wary of new wave of asylum seekers'',
June 25, p4) that today's refugees ''are playing games''. So often we hear or
read that these people may be communist agents or terrorists. I am a Vietnam
veteran, I think I understand why these people flee persecution. I know some of
these boat people and their stories, both from postwar Vietnam and some more
recently fleeing from Sri Lanka and other war-torn countries.

Today's refugees are no
different to the people that Don escaped from Vietnam with. Such ill-informed
comments only serve to muddy the debate even more. Where is the Christian
compassion and charity please?”

We couldn’t have said it better ourselves. Xenphobia and racism deserve no part in
any nation.

Cleric wary of new wave of asylum seekers

He came to Australia as a refugee and recently Don Nguyen
was ordained the seventh permanent deacon for the Catholic Archdiocese of
Canberra and Goulburn.

Mindful of his background, he would love to have involvement
with refugees, but he urges caution.

''Refugees are of concern for the church and everyone,'' he
said. ''But we have to deal with whether they are genuine refugees.'' The
situation was now very complex. ''In my time, identifying refugees was easier.
I think a lot of people are playing games these days.'' People claiming to be
refugees could be terrorists or being used by communist regimes to expand their
empires. ''We don't want to lose our freedom helping these people.'' But people in refugee camps, as opposed to those who
could afford to pay to get to Australia, were very disadvantaged and had no
protection.

''I would love to have involvement with refugees. I have
experienced how the refugee feels.''

He was born in Vietnam in 1959 and came to Australia on
October 21, 1981. The date is obviously significant to him. ''It is something I
cannot forget.''

In Vietnam he was a swimming instructor. His wife, Jennifer,
was a gymnastics instructor. They married two years after moving to Australia. ''We
escaped together from Vietnam.'' This was in a small boat during a two-week
hazardous voyage to Malaysia. ''We consider we were one of the lucky people. We
experienced a lot of storm. There was a moment when we thought the boat would
be sunk. Somehow we survived.''

They spent three months in a refugee camp before being
accepted by Australia as refugees.

His mother was a Christian and his father a Buddhist. His
father, brother and sister were killed in 1968 when the communists invaded from
the north. On arrival in Australia with limited English he worked as a kitchen
hand in Sydney.

Later, while working as a mail sorter with Australia Post,
he studied electrical engineering and computing at Wollongong University. The combined
pressure of work, study and the arrival of their first child meant he did not
complete the degree.

In 1990 he joined the then Department of Social Security and
about 10 years ago he moved to Canberra as part of a restructure of the
department for which he worked.

He said he was an ordinary Christian with a Vietnamese
community until invited to attend a Cursillo weekend. Cursillo is a Christian
renewal movement established in Spain in 1944. With Kairos Ministry he visited
inmates at Long Bay Jail.

He said his ordination as a deacon gave him more
opportunities to serve the Church. He is not sure where it might lead. ''I just
open myself to God and enter the unknown.''

As a deacon he can perform most priestly roles but not the
sacraments of Eucharist, confession or anointing of the sick.

''I hope to be available when people need my service.''

Asylum seekers deserve same help as Vietnamese

I was appalled that Don Nguyen (''Cleric wary of new wave of
asylum seekers'', June 25, p4) thought it appropriate to announce his
appointment as deacon to the Catholic Archdiocese of Canberra and Goulburn by
airing views on asylum seekers that are directly contrary to those of the
Catholic Bishops Conference and many Catholics in his diocese.

Refugees from Vietnam benefited from Australia's involvement
in the Comprehensive Plan of Action, an international effort to resettle
refugees from Indochina, as well as the Orderly Departure Program Australia
negotiated with the Vietnamese government.

Australian immigration officials sent to countries of first
asylum processed people like Nguyen, and our government was sympathetic to the
distress of those displaced by a war in which Australia had taken part.

No such national or international program has been
established to resettle refugees who have fled to Pakistan and Iran from
Afghanistan and Iraq, despite Australia's involvement in war in their
countries. Desperate people with no alternatives risk dangerous boat journeys
to claim asylum in Australia.

When Australia signed the 1951 Refugee Convention, we
committed to treating such arrivals humanely while considering their claims for
protection. The 2000 Vietnamese who arrived in Australia by boat from the late
1970s, were not detained and were granted permanent residence immediately on
being found to be refugees. Current boat arrivals are detained for lengthy
periods and granted only temporary visas on release into the community, gravely
impeding their resettlement prospects. Nguyen's claims that asylum seekers
could be terrorists or communist subversives are both ridiculous and
un-Christian.

Ann-Mari Jordens, Red Hill

I am extremely concerned at Deacon Don Nguyen's comment (''
Cleric wary of new wave of asylum seekers'', June 25, p4) that today's refugees
''are playing games''. So often we hear or read that these people may be
communist agents or terrorists. I am a Vietnam veteran, I think I understand
why these people flee persecution. I know some of these boat people and their
stories, both from postwar Vietnam and some more recently fleeing from Sri
Lanka and other war-torn countries.

Today's refugees are no different to the people that Don
escaped from Vietnam with. Such ill-informed comments only serve to muddy the
debate even more. Where is the Christian compassion and charity please?

Gavin O'Brien, Gilmore

I disagree with both Labor and the Coalition's respective
positions on asylum seekers, but the time has come for all of us to put aside
opinions and demand that our politicians find a solution.

Surely somewhere in the self-interest that forms the soul of
modern politics, there remains a remnant of bi-partisanship that will put the
lives of desperate people ahead of ambition.

Bart Meehan, Calwell

May I suggest that if our politicians are unable to reach a
joint decision on the handling of asylum seekers arriving by boat by Wednesday
of next week, then as many as possible people of Australia gather in Canberra,
place the Federal Parliament under siege and only let the pollies out when a
decision has been reached.

John Bonnett, Belconnen

Once again we are supposed to sit back as a nation and cop
it when a boatload of illegal immigrants founders in another people-smuggling
attempt to reach Australia.

I simply ask why we are not seeing articles indicating the
Indonesian ambassador has been ''called in'' and given an absolute rocket by
the Gillard government, as an indication of growing Australian disgust at his
government's overt complicity in criminal people smuggling by allowing the
craft to sail in the first place.